September 01, 2004

Mmmm. Mmmm. Good.

I just had soup for lunch. I know, the excitement just never ends around here. There was news report on the radio this morning about two teenage girls who killed themselves. Apparently, they were practicing witchcraft; although, they weren't Wiccans. They threw themselves in front of train. Wiccans, as you might or might not know, practice Wicca. Wicca is basically a pagan religion that worships the natural world, the earth. Their ideas fall more in line with the druids than with satanic devil worshipers. When I was in college, I interviewed a coven of witches for a newswriting class. They explained to me that Wiccans don't even acknowledge the existence of the devil because it's basically a Christian creation. It's not possible for them to worship something they don't believe exists.

Anyway, getting back to the two girls who killed themselves... The authorities believe their involvement with witchcraft had something to do with their suicides. I found the way they killed themselves interesting only for the fact that girls don't usually opt for the violent death. Which is why they don't succeed with suicide attempts as often as boys do. Boys do things like drive their car over a cliff or shoot themselves. Girls do things like slit their wrists or take sleeping pills. So, I find myself wondering how they decided on the train route. If I sound somewhat cavalier about the whole thing, it's because I consider suicide one of the dumbest things a person could carry out. A lot of times it's a result of serious mental illness, which is terrible, of course. But with teenagers, it probably has more to do with normal teenage angst that just gets really out of hand. I remember suicide entering my mind once or twice when I was a teen, but it had more to do with being angry with my parents than being miserable with life. The thought usually left my head as quickly as it entered. And in my life I've experienced mental distress of a nature strong enough to make me feel like I was losing myself to something I couldn't understand, but I never considered killing myself as a way to fix things. So I do wonder what makes a person go through with it.

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